Tim Almond

I have to wonder how far one could go with this:-

A Christian registrar who refused to officiate over same-sex civil partnerships has won a discrimination case that could redraw the boundaries of anti-discrimination laws.

Lillian Ladele is set to receive thousands of pounds in compensation after an industrial tribunal on Thursday ruled that Islington council unlawfully discriminated against her because she refused to carry out the ceremonies “as a matter of religious conscience”.

The problem here is that religion is not fact, it’s faith. No-one actually knows whether God(s) said through his prophets that men and women shouldn’t be together, or whether he said that you should eat cows or pigs.

So, as we don’t know it, we should therefore treat all religions as equal in the eye of the law. Which means that Christianity should be treated equally to the believers in the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, or the people of Yaohnanen who believe that Prince Phillip is a living god.

The problem is that following this to its conclusion, it becomes banal. Can a soldier on his way to Afghanistan claim conversion to the quakers, and therefore, that fighting would be against his religious conscience? Can a science teacher refuse to teach evolution because it is against her religious conscience?

Many employers can reach accomodations. I remember doing a weekend handover for a Christian who didn’t want to work on Sunday. He didn’t want to work, I was glad to get paid for it, and it made little difference to the cost. There wasn’t a problem. If you can’t do that, you should go and find another job.

Tags: Politics, Religion //